New Music I'm Digging

While I've been posting a lot of recap's of the concerts I've gone to over the years, I haven't posted about what I'm actually listening to in awhile.  Here's some newer stuff that I've hit replay on a lot lately.

Adele

Like the rest of the world, I'm in love with Adele and pretty much everything she does.  Her new single "Hello" is everything, I mean EVERYTHING!  I'm stating the obvious, how can this woman do any wrong?

Kip Moore

I feel like I am way late to the party on country singer Kip Moore.  I saw him perform earlier this year on an awards show and was intrigued and thought I'd check him out.  His new CD is called Wild Ones and it's a solid album, front to back!

Some of my favorite tracks are:

• "Magic" I love the sweeping melodies in this song and the lyric "When your hair fails down raining glitter and gold" 
• "Lipstick" There's something about this song that has the slightest Richard Marx 80's feel to it, and I mean that in the best way
• "Comeback Kid" This is a quiet song, but in such a beautiful way.  I love the choir sound in the chorus.

I could really list his whole CD, but will leave it to just these three!

Leona Lewis

I have been a fan of Leona's the instant I heard "Bleeding Love".  She has such an incredible voice and I think is a bit underrated in America.  Her new CD I Am is a pretty solid pop album.

Some of my favorite tracks are:

• "Thank You" This is a beautiful simple song.  Leona starts out solo and while the music does come in along with a choir, it is a very beautiful song about gratitude.
• "I Am" A dance track that builds during the choruses.  I could easily see this song being great for a movie or television show.
• "The Essence of Me" I really love the music and rhythm in this song.  Definitely a song that I sing to, with dramatic arm motions in the car!

I was lucky enough to meet her recently at our local Aloft Hotel and I can attest, she sounds just amazing live and is so nice!

❤️ this one @leonalewis #FireUnderMyFeet #iam @alofthotels #leonalewis

A video posted by @sweethomewi on Oct 1, 2015 at 6:55pm PDT

Amazing night with @leonalewis ❤️❤️❤️ @alofthotels #Thunder #iam

A video posted by @sweethomewi on Oct 1, 2015 at 6:47pm PDT

I didn't know we were going to be able to meet her as well, wish I would have known so I could have cleaned up a little bit!

Great time last night with @leonalewis & @eleganceforyou ! Thx for coming to #Milwaukee! Photo Credit #wmyx

A photo posted by @sweethomewi on Oct 2, 2015 at 6:11am PDT

Concert Stories #18: Greenwheel with Revis

$10 admission and so totally worth every penny, and on Valentine's Day! Not exactly a date night considering I went with my brother

Greenwheel (3rd time)

Opener: Revis

The Rave - Bar

February 14, 2003

Age 19

Greenwheel again!  Greenwheel did a small headlining tour and it was so small they played the bar at The Rave, not even The Rave.  I'm terrible at guessing but maybe 50 people showed up?  Regardless of the crowd turnout, we loved the concert so much, and another bonus, Revis opened for them! We had not heard of Revis before but they killed it.  They are a rock band out of Illinois and a few weeks after this show their song "Caught in the Rain" would be released on the Daredevil soundtrack and get some decent radio play.  Greenwheel then came out and finished out an amazing night giving another high energy set.  It was great two see two talented rock bands perform intense shows in such an intimate venue.  

I also developing an irrational fear of getting stuck in the bathroom at this show.  The bathroom at the bar was a single walk in the room and lock it type of situation, not a room with multiple stalls.  I went in, did my business, and when I tried to leave the lock got stuck and since this was not a "stall" situation, there was nowhere, not even a window, to crawl out of.  The music was so loud and I was banging on the door and no one heard me!  I was most likely trapped for at most two minutes, but in my head it felt like hours!  Now, even 12 years later, I still fear getting stuck in one of those rooms.  Ridiculous I know!

Here's Revis's "Caught in the Rain", song still holds up I believe.




And the ever growing, super weird playlist

Concert Stories #17: Creed with Trantric and Virgos

Ironically on Valentines' Day

Creed

Openers: Tantric and Virgos
Weathered Tour

BMO Harris Bradley Center

February 14, 2002

Age 19

I'm almost too embarrassed to write that I went to this one, but here I go, I went to a Creed show.

Let me explain, there was a guy in high school, you know the story... I thought he was cute and he was a Creed fan, so I sadly decided I should be?  I was in college now but I think my reasoning was that if one cute guy liked Creed more would?  What logic is that?  I should have been kicked out of college on the spot for such thinking!

I went with my friend Sam and her boyfriend at the time and then he brought a friend along, so I guess maybe you could say it was a double date (given it was Valentine's Day, it surely was).  Nobody there except me seemed to want to go at all even though the guys has begged to come along.  Overall it was just a really weird and awkward concert, which honestly had nothing to do with Creed but more the weirdness in our group.  I remember the friend was smoking right when I met him at the Bradley Center (which is an automatic no for me) and then he even tried to stiff me out of paying for the ticket, but I did eventually get the money.  

Virgos and Tantric were the openers and I actually had Tantric's self-titled Tantric CD and thought they were pretty good.  When Creed came out we were right in the front for them and I will say, I did enjoy them.  They do know how to give a descent show for that particular crowd.

I believe I would have enjoyed the show better if not for the awkward double date, because remember now, at the time, yes I was a Creed fan.

PS. This review should have been before the last two concerts.  Must have been delaying it for some reason..

Being right up on the railing for this show, the Virgos came out and did signatures.  Here is their drummer and guitar players signature on the back of a grocery list I had.

And remember, I have an awesomely bad playlist up on Spotify with all the bands I've seen to date!

Concert Stories #16: Hoobastank with Blindside and Greenwheel

Admission $12.00?! Wow, hard to find that anymore.

Hoobastank
Openers: Blindside and Greenwheel (2nd time)

The Rave

October 15, 2002

Age 19

After seeing Default and Greenwheel, my concerts started to turn more rock and slightly pop-punkish.  I was in that transition of high school to college and just confused about everything.  I took a liking to Hoobastank and went with my brother to their show at The Rave.  "Crawling in the Dark" was a huge song along with "Running Away" and "Remember Me".  Another reason for going to this show was seeing Greenwheel for the second time.   They opened the show and gave another stellar performance and then were followed by the Swedish band Blindside who gave an electric performance.  My brother and I had gotten separated at the show, which really wasn’t a big deal and happened often. I got pushed up into the center front, right on the railing.  At one point the lead singer of Blindside stepped onto the rail, right in front of me and I sort of just had to stand there and hold his legs steady for a minute.  
Then it was time for the headliner.  I found it hilarious when Hoobastank came out the lead singer reached out into the crowd and grabbed my hand.  He then preceded to not let go and then security had to “remove my hand” from his even though he was the one that would not let go (I'm not big on touching people I don't know or even touching people I do know).  A little over dramatic but fits with their show.  The concert was great, I was getting a lot of angst out and the security guard in front of me was awesome.  He stood directly in front of me and would catch crowd surfers as they came overhead.  Everything was going perfectly until the last song… which song that was I’m not sure for obvious reasons you will soon know, but the crowd went OFF.  Crowd surfers were coming from every direction and security was doing everything they could to catch them as they came over the railing.  The security guard in front of me reached to the side to catch one person and at that same time another reveler got tossed up, and even though I had my hands up trying to anticipate people coming, the person came from behind and got landed right on my head.  I went face first into the metal railing.  I lucked out that the railing hit right between my nose and my mouth, but as the person continued to fell down it shoved my head forward, pushing up against my nose hard.  It could have been much worse though.  I started bleeding immediately and the security guard, who had been so awesome all night long, noticed instantly.  I could tell he felt bad that he looked away for two seconds and that is when I got hurt.  At 5’9” I’m one tall broad, but thankfully at that time, I was pretty skinny.  The guard lifted me straight out of the crowd and carried me out to the bar.  The bartender funnily asked if I “made the other girl hurt more”.  I wish I was tough enough for a fight, but nope, just a metal bar to the face!  I’ve yet to breathe clearly since that night.  I think that, combined with when I got kicked in the face a year earlier, may have done some damage to my nose!  I also went home with some seriously bruised ribs. Being right on the railing is fun but also a bit painful for the ribs when the crowd surges back and forth against it. 


A bonus, I went home with the set list from Blindside, although I would have much preferred a functioning face.

Concert Stories #15: Default with Greenwheel

Default

Opener: Greenwheel

Rock Stage – Summerfest

July 3, 2002

Age 19

Normally I dread opening acts, I have even refused to go to a concert when I knew the opening act was a band I hated (at Summerfest - were you must get there early to reserve your spot and wait through the opener), but on the flip side, opening acts can expose you to something you may have not come across on your own.  The first time this happened to me was when my brother and I went to Summerfest to check out the band Default.  The opening band was Greenwheel and we walked in half way through their set and as soon as we heard them, we were hooked!  Ryan Jordan is the lead singer of the band, which is from Missouri.  He sang with such passion and intensity in his voice and his band mates matched it.  My brother and I immediately bought their CD Soma Holiday and if I remember correctly, we both wore out our own copies and had to get new ones (oh the days before mp3’s).  We would go on to see them again (coming in another Concert Story) and in 2007 they would change the name of the band to Go Van Gogh, which is sort of when I stopped paying attention.  I will forever love Soma Holiday though, it brings back such great memories of my late teens and early 20s.  

The headliner Default, who we were there to mainly see, gave a great show as well!  I was starting to go through an angst filled phase after a confusing first year of college and "Deny" and "Sick and Tired" from The Fallout were on regular reply on my discman, yeah I'm old, I carried around a discman!

Overall it was a great night at Summerfest that night.  Saw a band that let me dance (I wouldn't say dance, but I also wouldn't say moshed, basically jumped around like an idiot?) out my confusion and found a new one to love as well.

Here is the video for "Breathe".  If this sounds familiar, Melissa Etheridge covered this song for her album Lucky and earned a Grammy Award nomination for it (and in my personal opinion ruined it forever but I guess the Academy disagreed with me on that).

"Breathe" is good, but "Shelter" is probably my favorite

I have also created what has the potential to be the worst playlist on Spotify.  Each week I'll add my favorite songs from the artist I've seen this week.  Check out what I have so far, if you dare!